Win the bid, and trump your way to victory with this three-person Tarock.
Not just for fortune telling! Tapp Tarock is a fun trick-taking game with the added fascination of the fifth suit, tarot.
The Cards
This game is played with a 54-card tarot deck. There are four suits (spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds), plus the additional fifth suit “tarot”, which is a permanent trump suit. Fun fact: the origin of the word “trump” comes from the earlier designation of the tarots in Italian, “le trionfi”.
Regular Suits
In contrast to a regular deck, there are four face cards: King, Queen, Knight and Jack. In further contrast to a regular deck, the kings are the highest cards by trick rank besides the tarots.
There is a difference between red and black suits, too: in hearts and diamonds, the trick rank after K-Q-Kn-J is A-2-3-4, and those are all the cards present in those suits.
In clubs and spades, the trick rank after the face cards is 10-9-8-7, and these again are the entirety of the cards in those suits.
Tarots
The trick rank of the tarot cards is equal to their numbers, which go from 1-21. The highest trick rank among the tarots, however, is the “Sküs” (say “skyooz”, derived from French “excusez”– which you might say when taking all your opponents cards :P ). The Sküs does not have a number, but instead looks kind of like the joker of a regular deck. The Sküs, the 21 tarot, called the Mond, and the 1 tarot, called the Pagat, are the three tarots worth the most points and known together as the honneurs.
Setup
At the start of the game, six cards are dealt face down in two packs of three in the center of the table. These are called the “tapp” (hence the name of the game).
- Sixteen cards are then dealt to each player in four packs of four.
- The game begins by players bidding for the chance to earn points by winning the round.
- Depending on the bid, you can use the tapp cards to improve your hand.
Object of the Game
The goal of Offenbach Tapp is to make points by beating your two opponents alone or beating your one opponent together.
Bidding determines who gets to be the single opponent. Beginning with the player to the right of the dealer (game is played counter-clockwise), players look at their cards and judge whether they want to attempt to win the game alone by collecting the majority of possible card points. There are 70 points in the deck, so to win, you need 36. In most cases, if you win the bid, you get to improve your hand with cards from the tapp.
Bidding, Bonuses and Countering
Bid Levels
There are four bids that can be made, each subsequent level only possible after one player has bid the previous.
| Bids in Ascending Order | Description | Pay Out |
|---|---|---|
| Three | Bidwinnner gets to choose either of the two packs of three cards from the tapp. | 20 |
| Two | Bidwinner gets to choose one of the three adjacent pairs of cards from the tapp. | 40 |
| One | Bidwinner gets to choose one of the cards from the tapp. | 60 |
| Solo | Bidwinner has to play without any cards from the tapp. | 100 |
In all the bids except the “solo”, the winning bidder has the chance to improve their hand by exchanging with cards from the tapp.
Bidding Process
In the bidding, players can pass or bid, but once they pass they are excluded from the rest of the bidding. The first bid is always “three”, and goes up the scale to “two”, “one”, and “solo”.
If a player is outbid, they have the right to accept the higher bid as their own by saying “I hold”, but also the option to raise again to the next highest bid.
Bidding Examples
Player 2 bids, is outbid, and then takes the higher bid as his own. Player 3 decides not to outbid again:
- Player 1: “pass”
- Player 2: “three”
- Player 3: “two”
- Player 1: (SKIPPED)
- Player 2: “I hold (the two)”
- Player 3: “pass”
- END (Player 2 wins the bid.)
Player 1 bids, player 2 outbids, player 3 passes and players 1 and 2 don’t bid further:
- Player 1: “three”
- Player 2: “two”
- Player 3: “pass”
- Player 1: “pass”
- END (Player 2 wins the bid.)
Exchanging Cards
Once the bidding phase is over, in all games except “solo”, the bidwinner can exchange cards from the tapp, and the tapp is flipped over for all to see. The bidwinner exchanges the specified number of cards, and the discarded cards count towards the bidwinner’s trick points, while the untouched tapp cards belong to the opponents’ tricks. Note: you can discard cards you just picked up.
- Kings and Sküs, Mond (21) and Pagat (1) may not be discarded, because they are worth five points each, and would immediately land in your tricks, giving you an unfair advantage.
- Tarot can only be discarded if you have no other suited cards to discard.
- Cards are discarded face-down, unless they are tarots.
Bonus
After the bidding phase and the exchange of tapp cards, bonus can be announced, which can be won by any player and are also paid out by the other players 50/50. Announced bonuses are worth more (and cost more) than unannounced (silent) bonuses.
| Bonus | Description | Pay Out (silent) | Pay Out (announced) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pagat Ultimo | Win the Pagat (1) in the last trick | 20 | 40 |
| Trull | Win all three Trulls (Pagat (1), Mond (21), Sküs) | 20 | 40 |
| Four Kings | Win all four kings | 20 | 40 |
| Absolut | Win with 40-49 points | 20 | 40 |
| Grandpoint | Win with 50 or more points | 40 | 80 |
Countering
Once a bid is won and any bonuses announced, players have the option to counter, doubling the points to be won or lost for that game or bonus. This is done by saying “contra” or “I counter the three”, for example. Game and bonus announcements can be countered individually.
Player 3 bids, player 1 counters:
- Player 1: “pass”
- Player 2: “pass”
- Player 3: “three”
- (Tapp exchanged, no bonus announcements)
- Player 1: “contra”
- Player 2: “pass”
- Player 3: “pass”
- END (Player 3 wins the bid with a counter, playing for double stakes.)
Player 3 bids, player 1 passes and later counters:
- Player 1: “pass”
- Player 2: “pass”
- Player 3: “three”
- (Tapp exchanged)
- Player 1: “pass”
- Player 2: “Trull”
- Player 3: “pass”
- Player 1: “contra on Trull”
- Player 2: “pass”
- Player 3: “pass”
- END (Player 3 wins the bid, player 2 announces a Trull, which is countered by player 1)
Trick Taking
The player who won the bid plays the first card.
Following Suit, etc.
You always are required to play the same suit as the first card if possible.
- If you can’t play the same suit, you are required to play a tarot card.
- Only if you can’t play a card of the same suit or a tarot may you discard a card of the wrong suit. The highest card of the same suit (or the highest tarot) takes the trick, and the winner of the trick plays the next card. You need 36 points to win the game.
Scoring
At the end of each game, trick points are counted to determine who gets paid how much.
Trick Points
Tarock traditionally uses an unusual method of counting trick points. Group cards into packs of three, add the point values of each card, and then subtract two from the sum. It’s actually fairly easy to count this way, simply group two one-pointer cards like normal tarots or the numbered suits with one higher card, and you can just ignore the one-pointers. Sometimes you’ll end up with multiple high cards in a pack of three.
For example:
- Queen of Hearts / 5 of Hearts / Tarot 3 = (4 + 1 + 1) - 2 = 4
- Jack of Spades / Tarot 14 / Tarot 18 = (2 + 1 + 1) - 2 = 2
- King of Diamonds / Tarot 12 / Sküs = (5 + 1 + 5) - 2 = 9
Tip: If you’re not a stickler for tradition you can use a simplified point system where you just add up the cards’ values. No need for counting in threes and subtracting two. You still win with 36.
| Card by Trick Rank | Points (Traditional) | Points (Simplified) |
|---|---|---|
| Sküs | 5 | 5 |
| Mond (21) | 5 | 5 |
| Other Tarots (2-20) | 1 | 0 |
| Pagat (1) | 5 | 5 |
| King | 5 | 5 |
| Queen | 4 | 4 |
| Knight | 3 | 3 |
| Jack | 2 | 2 |
| 10/A | 1 | 0 |
| 9/2 | 1 | 0 |
| 8/3 | 1 | 0 |
| 7/4 | 1 | 0 |
Pay Outs
If the bidwinner wins the game or a bonus as announced, the other players pay her for the win according to the below tables, each paying half the pay out. If the announcer loses, they must pay each opponent half the value.
Tip: Use poker chips to make points more tangible!
| Bid | Description | Pay Out |
|---|---|---|
| Three | Bidwinnner gets to choose either of the two packs of three cards from the tapp. | 20 |
| Two | Bidwinner gets to choose one of the three adjacent pairs of cards from the tapp. | 40 |
| One | Bidwinner gets to choose one of the cards from the tapp. | 60 |
| Solo | Bidwinner has to play without any cards from the tapp. | 100 |
| Bonus | Description | Pay Out (silent) | Pay Out (announced) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pagat Ultimo | Win the Pagat (1) in the last trick | 20 | 40 |
| Trull | Win all three Trulls (Pagat (1), Mond (21), Sküs) | 20 | 40 |
| Four Kings | Win all four kings | 20 | 40 |
| Absolut | Win with 40-49 points | 20 | 40 |
| Grandpoint | Win with 50 or more points | 40 | 80 |
End of Game
The game is over when the first player goes broke. :)
The winner is the player with the most chips.